Winners of $1.6 billion U.S. Powerball jackpot still officially unknown

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Three ticket holders with a claim on a record $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot were laying low on Thursday, their identities officially still a mystery even as lottery officials revealed the retailers in California, Florida and Tennessee that sold them the lucky tickets.

Each of the winning tickets is worth $528.8 million to the holders, lottery officials said in California, one of 44 states plus Washington, D.C., and two U.S. territories that sold millions of Powerball tickets.

The winning numbers of 08 27 34 04 19 and Powerball 10, picked in a drawing on Wednesday night, appeared on tickets sold in three stores: a 7-Eleven convenience store in Chino Hills, California, a Publix supermarket in Melbourne Beach, Florida and Naifeh's Food Mart in Munford, Tennessee. The jackpot winners overcame odds of 1 in 292 million.

"The Chino Hills winner has not come forward yet," California Lottery said on its Twitter feed.

Los Angeles TV station KABC backed away from a story it reported that a registered nurse in Pomona, California, was one of the jackpot winners after the woman's daughter said her mother was not the winner.

At a media conference in front of the California 7-Eleven, lottery officials presented a symbolic check for $1 million to the owner of the franchise, Balbir Atwal, for selling a jackpot winning ticket. He said he would give some of the bonus money to charity and share some of it with his friends and family.

With each state setting its own lottery rules, the Tennessee retailer, located in a Memphis suburb, received $25,000 and the Florida retailer, located in a tiny coastal town, will get $100,000 at an undetermined date, lottery officials said.

The announcement of the winners came after the previous 19 drawings produced no jackpot winners. With the grand prize rolling over each time, the bounty soared to a record $1.586 billion, fueled by what had become a national preoccupation with Powerball and the prospect of taking home untold riches.
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